


Bitter

by BlueRam



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom, Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons)
Genre: Gift Fic, M/M, Prompt Fic, implied bad break up, implied infidelity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-14
Updated: 2018-05-14
Packaged: 2019-05-06 22:40:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14657709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueRam/pseuds/BlueRam
Summary: “I realize that somewhere along the way I fell in love, had fallen in love, but not with you. Merely the idea of you, of what you could be and what we together could create as Gotham changed around us.”“Or so you would have liked me to believe-"





	Bitter

**Author's Note:**

> A gift fic for the lovely anon on Tumblr who always seem to know when i'm down and need a pick me up! Your request is filled, love!

“I realize that somewhere along the way I fell in love, had fallen in love, but not with you. Merely the idea of you, of what you could be and what we together could create as Gotham changed around us.” Harry’s voice was but a whisper as he carefully lined vials in order of size across his workspace. To the far left silver potion bubbled in a weathered caldron, the orange flames from a coal stove searing their mark for many more witches to marvel over.

“Or so you would have liked me to believe as you pushed me away, cursed me for things I could never hope to understand, resented me because you might have loved me, but your family, your family wanted nothing to do with me.” Harry gently tapped the rim of each vial before finally facing the man who dared to enter his abode at such odd hours. Content to watch him from the shadows, embodying the ridiculous image of a man-bat that roamed the streets at night and enacted his brand of justice.

“So it begs to question, why is Bruce Wayne here? Unsanctioned potty break maybe?” Harry drawled, folding his arms over his chest and raising an unimpressed brow.

“There’s a new drug on the market, we believe—”

“I’m a witch, not a drug dealer, Wayne. Consult your local street thugs maybe? Or better yet, your stray woman with a furry fetish!” Harry hissed, swiftly dismissing the impudent man in favour of continuing his work. With brisk movements, he ladled boiling potion into heat resistant vials. The viscous liquid sloshing against the rim, spilling over on the work table.

Batman finally emerged from the shadows, expression, what little that could be seen through his cowl, grim.

“Harry—”

“Only my friends call me that, sometimes lovers, but we all know how fickle lovers can be don’t we?” Harry muttered, barely holding back a smirk when Bruce released a frustrated sigh. He could see it now, the man pulling down his cowl, carding his hand through his dark hair in frustration and trying desperately to glare a hole into his head.

“I never knew you to be the petty type, Harry, especially when innocents are involved. This drug has claimed the life of 8 young teens, one of which is a witch. I thought you above all else would be more concerned for your—”

“And perhaps, if you would get off your high horse you would see that you didn’t know me, to begin with!” Harry muttered, unconcerned with Bruce’s attempt at a guilt trip. Don’t get him wrong, he was concerned by the sudden deaths of young teens in the poverty-stricken streets of the mostly Majestic Gotham. He was concerned that some idiot was out there distributing drugs an idiot he knew all too well. An idiot that wasn’t an idiot at all, and was in fact quite dangerous.

“And he wasn’t a witch, he was a Wiccan. Get your facts straight, Wayne,” Bruce watched as Harry stacked the potions on a carefully labelled shelf, green eyes flickering every now and again to a door left ajar to the far right, a sliver of yellow light escaping it and painting the hardwood of the humble apartment.

“Be that as it may, I know you have valuable information. Information that could save lives! Don’t be so selfish as to put our relationship the way of—” Bruce ripped the cowl from his face finally, just as Harry imagined he would. His hands were clenched tight. Blue eyes fierce like they always were when faced with someone who would stand to stop justice in its tracks.

There was no love in those eyes, or perhaps if there was, Harry had long since passed the point where he could recognize them. How far they had both had fallen.

“So arrogant you are to think that my world even six years past would revolve around—”

“Harry! Please…please. I know that you can help us, help me,” the fact that Bruce Wayne, the very man that was Batman, Gotham’s greatest wonder pleaded was enough to stop Harry in is tracks. Enough to still his bitter tongue and the vitriol that would sing from his lips.

Harry pursed his lips, fighting with his morality and his bitterness towards a man that had done nothing but use him. A man who wouldn’t defend him when his own family would tear him apart, yet…claimed to love him.

A man so chained by his past and deep love for that cat woman and the other who had borne him a son when they had been together that Harry’s love for him appeared a mere flicker from a candle flame amongst the raging volcano that was past love.

The sudden cry of a babe cut through the tense silence, Bruce’s eyes grew wide as something he could never perceive became reality in but a split second. It was as if Harry had forgotten about their standoff as he rushed off to the room he had paid little attention to as he worked to convince Harry to help the Justice League.

Something gripped his heart painfully as he watched Harry dip into a neat little bassinet and pulled a wailing child from its confine. Gently he hushed the child, rocking him as he hummed in the sweetest voice. A voice lost to him the moment he turned his back on Harry, refused to fight for him or be with him, because in the end…the passion, the chemistry, it had cooled.

Harry did not stroke the fires that Selena did. His love had become more of an obligation than anything else. They had both deserved better.

Yet, seeing Harry now, the way he held that child, smiled at him, the love that burned not like an erupting volcano but that of a warm hearth on the coldest winters, he wondered if he was right to so cruelly discard the witch.

Harry had been nothing but kind to him. Gave him love when he was broken, when he watched his children drift away from him, only to return in the dead of night to lick their wounds. Harry had been a steady pillar when the weight of his company threatened to send him crumbling and Alfred’s health withered.

Harry glued his broken piece together and when he was whole again, he had—

“The man you are looking for goes by many names, the most popular is Lord Voldemort, his birth name, though, is Tom Riddle Jr. No living family, an Alumni of Oxford University and a close associate of Lex Luthor,” Harry muttered, frowning as he checked the baby’s temperature.

“You may leave now,” Harry griped, glaring at Bruce when he realized the man had yet to leave. Instead, he stood still, eyes trained on the child in his arms.

“The chi—”

“I’m fostering, not that it’s any of your business!” Harry muttered, turning his back to Bruce, fully expecting the man to leave as he laid his foster son to bed once more.

“Harry—”

“Leave, Bruce Wayne, you have your information, anything else you have to say to me is worth nothing.” Harry listened as the man silently left, sighing in relief to have him out of his private space, and out of his life for a time yet.

“You should have let me kill him,” Harry snorted eyes flickering to the lone skull on the window skill. Its eye sockets glowed a menacing red, its jaw slipping open as it spoke.

“Maybe I should have…,Tom”


End file.
